Dungeon Noble - Squire

Jake barely got a few steps before one of the conjured shadow beasts came charging at him, parts of it still forming as it came.

Infusing his spear, Jake braced himself and took the charge dead on, his spear ripping right through the creature as it forced itself down his spear to try and get to him.

Heat washed over Jake as flames incinerated the creature’s head, causing it to collapse and dissipate into wisps of black smoke.

“Work together, these things are dangerous!” Aspen shouted, engaging another creature that had formed nearby as Nepthys attacked from its flank.

Taking in everything, Jake realised that only the two stronger Corrupters were left alive. Ari was steadily winning against his opponent, which was good, but neither looked like they were in trouble quite yet.

Felix was struggling with the woman and the seemingly endless amount of shadowy creatures she was conjuring.

Seeing Felix struggle to do anything was a rarity, and Jake was considering stepping in to try and help when Felix jumped back and bit out a curse as blood dripped from a nasty cut in his side.

Jake’s eyes went wide and he began to move forward before stopping as a wave of Wyrd burst out of Felix before forming around the wrist of his missing hand and shaping itself into a grey facsimile of the original.

Felix must have spotted Jake moving forward as he held up his new hand and waved him back. “No, leave this to me.”

Jake wanted to argue, but a pair of shadow beasts were trying to get to Gargan and Nepthys needed his help.

Jake caught glances off Felix’s fight after that and noticed that their instructor was now using a dagger alongside his short sword and was moving noticeably faster.

“…and stay down this time!” Ari’s shout drifted across the fight as he stood over the fallen Corrupter, his greatsword buried in the dead man’s chest.

Jake was beginning to wonder why Ari wasn’t helping Felix when one of the shadow beasts that was partially formed nearby collapsed into black smoke laced with purple as Felix landed a killing blow on the final Corrupter.

Glancing around, Jake slowly began to relax as he saw no further signs of Corrupters or those strange shadow beasts.

“Everyone okay?” Felix called out, his Wyrd hand fading away a moment after he sheathed his dagger.

“I’m good, but I had to use my Skills freely,” Ari said, sharing a grim look with Felix as he nodded to the fading hand. “How much do you have left after that?”

“More than I need, less than I want,” Felix said darkly. Turning to the rest of them he looked them over for any obvious injuries. “And all of you, any problems?”

“I think we’re all okay,” Jake said. “What were those beasts she was summoning?”

“Think of them as the Skryx equivalent of Moby,” Ari said, wrenching his greatsword out of the dead man and cleaning it off. “She looked like she was tier three or four, and without the System, their progression is more like the Boons you get more than anything else.”

“It’s because of the Dungeons they kill,” Nepthys said as she picked over the Corrupters, making sure each one was dead. “My father said that there’s something about the process of destroying them that empowers them and the gifts they’ve been given by the Shrouded.”

“Wait, so these Corrupters were getting stronger with each Dungeon they destroyed?” Jake asked, thinking of how much worse it could have been if they hadn’t caught up with them when they did.

“Yes, which means that these ones are all relatively new,” Ari said, gesturing at the Corrupters who had fought Jake and the others. “Otherwise they would have had more developed powers.”

“What I don’t understand,” Alan said with a slight frown. “Is why they weren’t taking out the tier two Dungeons. Those two you fought were a step above us in power. Surely they could have killed a Woadite even without aid?”

“Corrupters never attack Dungeons without overwhelming power,” Felix said, a hint of strain in his voice. “I don’t know why, only that they do.”

“Nepthys?” Alan turned to the Inquisitor hopefully, but she shook her head.

“I’ve been told the same, but I don’t know why either. Dungeon Nobles deal with the Dungeons directly, Inquisitors are here to hunt the Corrupters before they can get to them.”

“And I’m too inexperienced to know much of anything,” Jake said, rubbing his face with a sigh. Just when he thought he was starting to get a handle on everything, there was something new to worry about.

Ari cleared his throat before Alan could ask any more questions. “We should get moving, and sooner rather than later. The Dungeon they were heading for is nearby. We can stop there for the night and maybe you can do some delving in the morning.”

Jake perked up at the idea, more than happy to add another Dungeon to his list. “Sounds good to me. Let’s go.”

-**-

The Dungeon was intact and in pristine condition when they arrived. There was even signs of it being visited infrequently by other classers.

They spread out to take their pick of the cabins available and have the rest of the day off to unwind, but there was a knock at Jake’s door before he could do more than drop his pack.

“Hey, Jake, you should come take a look at this,” Alan said, giving him an apologetic look. “Sorry, I know you’ve not even sat down yet.”

“No, it’s okay,” Jake said, giving Alan a tired smile. He knew that if Alan was bothering him so soon, it was something important. “What’s up?”

“Well, I was doing a quick search of the perimeter while you were choosing a cabin,” Alan said as he led Jake over towards the Dungeon. “I just wanted to be sure everything was alright, you see. I think seeing all those broken Dungeons has left me a little twitchy.”

“No surprise there, I’m feeling a bit jumpy as well,” Jake said honestly. There was something about a dead Dungeon that really got under his skin. “What did you find, though?”

“A camp. You can see it over there if you look closely,” Alan said, pointing off in the distance to a cluster of trees.

Jake peered in that direction but couldn’t see anything unusual. “My eyes aren’t as good as yours, Alan.”

“Oh, right, yeah.” Alan gave him a slightly sheepish look before kicking up into a jog. “The really weird part is what’s in the camp, anyway.”

Jake followed with growing concern, though he eventually spotted the remnants of the camp that Alan had found. It was little more than a burnt out campfire with a dead log and some rocks positioned around it for seating.

“Alright, so what’s the really weird part?”

“This, over here.” Alan was knelt next to a scattered group of rocks, staring down at them with a concerned look. “These have been placed like this.”

Jake took another look at the rocks, noticing how they’d been pushed into the ground to make sure they would stay where they were. All of them were small, pebbles more than anything, and were a little out of place now he was paying attention.

The shapes they formed weren’t anything he recognised, though, and he said as much to Alan.

“No, I don’t know what it means either. The part that has me worried is that I think I saw something similar back at the camp we saw yesterday.”

“I see,” Jake said slowly, considering the implications of that. “Do you mind going and getting Felix? We should probably get his opinion on this.”

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” Alan said, getting to his feet with a relieved look and hurrying back the way they came.

Jake stared at the strange symbols, trying to make sense of them. They were clearly a message of some sort, but they weren’t letters, there weren’t enough for that.

Jake tried to think of what he’d seen in the past that could be shown like this, but after a minute of searching his memories, all he had was a growing headache for his troubles.

“Alan said you’d found something?” Felix called out as he entered the abandoned camp, Alan by his side.

“Well, Alan found it, but yes, we have something,” Jake said, motioning him over and pointing to the stones. “We think this is a message of some sort, and Alan thinks he saw one at the last camp as well.”

“How certain are you that the Corrupters had stayed in that camp?” Felix asked, looking over at Alan questioningly.

“Them specifically, not at all, but it was fresh, and it was used by the right amount of people now that we know how many there were.”

“I see.” Felix frowned down at the message for a long moment before shaking his head. “This means nothing to me, but I don’t like it. If it was at the last camp as well, that might mean they were following behind a second group. These messages could be them communicating somehow.”

“What would they be saying?” Alan asked, paling a little at the idea of a second group of Corrupters.

The fight they’d had earlier in the day had been brief but deadly, and Jake wasn’t in favour of any repeats either.

“That is very much the question,” Felix said softly before taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “Alright, this is what we’ll do. For now, let’s settle in as we expected. I’ll stay up on watch overnight, and then rest while you delve tomorrow. After that, we’ll head for the next closest Dungeon and see what we find.”

“Makes sense to me,” Jake said, getting up to his feet and eyeing the rocks warily. “I don’t like this, though.”

“Neither do I.”